Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medium for growing cells in culture under in vitro conditions, and more particularly, to growing breast cancer cell lines in culture such as for research and commercial purposes.
Description of the Related Art
Breast cancer is currently the second leading cause of death for women in the United States, and is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Overall, 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes. Each year, over 40,000 women will die of breast cancer in the U.S. alone. Research in the area of breast cancer is therefore critical in better understanding the disease, to better enable diagnosis and treatments.
There are multiple forms or types of breast cancer, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or intraductal carcinoma, invasive (or infiltrating) ductal carcinoma (IDC) and its various sub-types [including adenoid cystic (or adenocystic) carcinoma, low-grade adenosquamous carcinoma, medullary carcinoma, mucinous (or colloid) carcinoma, papillary carcinoma, tubular carcinoma, metaplastic carcinoma (including spindle cell and squamous), micropapillary carcinoma], mixed carcinoma (having features of both invasive ductal and lobular), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), triple-negative breast cancers lacking estrogen and progesterone receptors and HER2 protein, Paget disease of the nipple, phyllodes tumors, angiosarcoma, as well as lobular carcinoma in situ, even though this is not considered cancer per se.
However, not all of these breast cancer cell types can be readily studied. For example, it is known that certain cell lines and/or cell types grow better in culture than others, and others do not grow in culture at all. Some cell lines, even cancerous cell lines, will not adhere to the cell culture plates to permit growth, and others do not take well to an ex vivo environment for reasons that are yet unknown, but may have to do with growing conditions such as temperature, humidity, percentage of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, nutrients, proximity or confluency of neighboring cells, intercellular signaling, scaffolding to attach, and others.
Previous work by this inventor, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,252,591, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, identified cell culture medium useful for growing normal breast epithelial cells using the proprietary media claimed therein, and owned by Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, Mass.). However, breast cancer cells do not grow well in the media.
Similarly, the cell culture media disclosed and claimed in an International Application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty having International Application Number PCT/US2012/030446 and International Publication No. WO 2012/129538 A1, also resulting from previous work by this inventor and owned by Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, Mass.), and further, which is also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, grew ovarian cancer cells well but was not suitable for breast cancer cells. Given that breast cancer is such a prevalent disease, and has many sub-types, a cell culture medium that can grow breast cancer cells in culture would be very beneficial to the assisting in the study of the disease and research into possible cures and treatments.